Monday, 21 January 2013

A diary of Deafness

So, this week, subtitles. The first thing I would like to say is turning the sound up does not get rid of the need for them, though it is helpful, certainly if subtitles aren't available. I need subtitles not necessarily because I cant hear what's being said but more I cant decipher it, maybe because it just isn't very clear, or the character has an accent or a beard which makes it difficult to lip read. Having watched the same film with and without subtitles it does surprise me how much I don't get when I don't use them. With that being said I had quite an annoying experience in relation to this not too long ago;

The last twilight film came out and me and my friends went to go see it at the cinema, sans subtitles. It was all good and I liked the film but I knew that I had missed lots of things that were being said, and not just because I was swooning at Robert Pattinson either. So a different group of us then went to a subtitled show. We got our tickets and popcorn and settled down. Then, the film starts, without subtitles. We were a bit confused but thought maybe they would just catch up, they didn't. I went to go find a worker thinking maybe there was some problem. He initially didn't actually know the film was meant to be subtitled, it was only after we showed a screen shot of the website (we took it to remember our film time) and spoken to someone else did he apologise for the mistake and offer us a refund. I was grateful for the refund for my friends ( I didn't actually pay for my ticket in the first place, perks of being deaf!) and apology but it did annoy me that I wasn't informed when I bought my ticket, even if they didn't have any knowledge of it being advertised as a subtitled showing (which they should have) when we were asked to choose our seats we started discussing about being able to see the subtitles. I am now waiting to get it on DVD so I can watch it subtitled from the comfort of my sofa. I'm sure this was a genuine misunderstanding and I don't hold any grudges about it but I do think that some people aren't aware of how much help subtitles actually are to a Deaf person.